Webber takes stunning pole in Monaco

Mark Webber took pole position for tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix, with a stunning lap at the end of the session. He was battling with Robert Kubica for the entire session, and Sebastian Vettel was behind these two. Here is the report in full.

Q1

At the start of the session, it became clear that Fernando Alonso would not be able to compete in Q1, due to his crash in Saturday practice. He will therefore start from the pit lane, since the team are still working on the car.

All of the cars went out very quickly as the session started, as nobody wanted to be caught out by backmarkers. Robert Kubica set the initial pace, but was soon held up by one of the Virgin cars. Felipe Massa set a 1.15.6, to take the top of the timesheets, and Lewis Hamilton was soon 0.01 seconds behind. Nico Rosberg was setting fastest sector times in S1 and S2, but was constantly being held up in S3, so he was unable to set a fast time in the first half of the session. Once he did get a time in, he set a 1.15.1 to lead the session.

It was only momentary though, as Massa blitzed a 1.14.7 only seconds after Rosberg. As the session continued, most drivers improved as the track cleared, which was indicating that the new teams would all be knocked out in Q1. Kamui Kobayashi took a risk by setting all of his times on the harer tyre, which is half a second slower than the soft tyre, although he was able to get into Q2.

Heikki Kovalainen tried his best to go faster than Kobayashi, but spun at Mirabeau, and then at the Casino hairpin the next lap. Despite the new teams’ efforts, all of them were knocked out in Q1, in the usual order. Despite this, the Lotus cars were only 3 seconds off the pace, which is a good improvement.

Drivers knocked out in Q1:

18) Heikki Kovalainen

19) Jarno Trulli

20) Timo Glock

21) Lucas di Grassi

22) Bruno Senna

23) Karun Chandhok

24) Fernando Alonso

Q2

Again, like Q1, all cars went out instantly at the start, to try and avoid traffic. Vitaly Petrov went first, and set an impressive 1.15.5. Michael Schumacher used good tactics to give himself plenty of space, but wasn’t able to set the pace at the start. Again, Robert Kubica was the fastest man on track, with a 1.14.9.

Very soon, Schumacher matched that time, and Kubica then went 3 tenths quicker. Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton were very close out on track, and on their first laps they went 5th and 6th. Felipe Massa went one hundreth faster than Kubica, and then Rosberg smashed another 3 tenths off that time.

While Sebastian Vettel was up at the top, he wasn’t fast enough to take the lead. Jenson Button was struggling with 7 minutes to go, as he was sitting in 11th place. His next lap put him into 10th place, but only just (0.006 seconds), as he was slightly held up by Pedro de la Rosa.

Vitaly Petrov was going for a fast lap, as he was in 13th place, but he crashed at the Snt Devote corner, and brought out the yellow flags, ruining many drivers’ laps. However, the stewards were excellent in getting rid of the broken Renault in less than a minute. Once the car was cleared, everyone had one lap remaining to set a time.

However, none of the top 10 drivers were displaced by the other 7. Having said that, it was a very good session, as the top 7 were seperated by only 3 tenths of a second.

Drivers knocked out in Q2:

11) Nico Hulkenberg

12) Adrian Sutil

13) Sebastien Buemi

14) Vitaly Petrov

15) Pedr de la Rosa

16) Kamui Kobayashi

17) Jaime Alguersuari

Q3

As Q3 started, it was very clear that is was going to be an incredibly close session, with many drivers gunning for pole. Both Robert Kubica and Vitantonio Liuzzi started the session on used super-soft tyres, to conserve another set for the race. It didn’t stop Robert though, as he quickly set a 1.14.7 to take top spot. Lewis Hamilton’s first time was 6 tenths slower than this.

But, in an instant, Kubica pulled out a stunning lap, a 1.14.2, to go an entire second faster than anyone else. All 10 cars then went out with 5 minutes to go, to try and knock Kubica off the top. Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button were first, but were miles off his time. However, when Jenson Button went round the last corner on a fast lap, he was hugely held up by Felipe Massa, who may well be penalised for that move.

As car after car set their lap, nobody got near Robert. Lewis Hamilton got within one tenth, but everyone else was still an entire second behind. Robert Kubica set another brilliant lap, but everyone was competely shocked when Mark Webber came out from nowhere to take provisional pole by a few hundreths. But, when many thought it was over, Webber set another stunning lap, a 1.13.8, to rip pole position from Kubica’s hands.

Sebastian Vettel still wasn’t entirely on the pace, but still took 3rd on the grid. Michael Schumacher was only 7th while team-mate Rosberg was 6th. Massa and Hamilton were 4th and 5th respectively, while Jenson Button was 8th after being held up by Felipe. Rubens Barrichello was 9th, and Liuzzi 10th. It was a stunning Q3 session, although Kubica must be dissapointed with 2nd after setting so many fast laps.